With the Portsmouth ship taking on water at an alarming rate, the club’s administrators are doing everything they can to lighten the load to ensure potential rescuers have as much time as possible to spring into action.

This week saw Hayden Mullins become the latest player to be offloaded to cut the wage bill, with the midfielder joining Reading on loan until the end of the season.

But if things are bad off the pitch, then they aren’t much better on it – Pompey have not won since January 28th and have lost six of their subsequent eight games since then.

As a result, they are rooted to the bottom of the Championship table with their record of nine wins, nine draws and 17 defeats not good enough to keep them out of trouble once their ten-point deduction for going into administration is taken into consideration.

Five of the last eight Portsmouth home games have been 0-0 at half time, with not more than one goal scored in any of those matches.

The good news is that Bristol City, their opponents at Fratton Park on Saturday, are not doing too much better themselves, although this only serves to increase the importance of the meeting between the two sides.

While the Robins – 21st in the Championship table – won as recently as March 6th, that was their only win in seven and they have lost nine of their last 12 Championship matches.

Perhaps even more alarmingly for Derek McInnes’ men, Bristol City have lost their last six away games to nil, and their last three by the same 3-0 scoreline.

This offers embattled Portsmouth a glimmer of hope, and they actually go into the game as favourites in bwin’s 3Way football betting market.

A home success is priced at 5/4, a draw is at 21/10 and a Bristol City success is priced at 11/5.

Nevertheless, the poor form shown by both sides makes the result difficult to call, meaning punters looking for a safe bet should perhaps turn their attention elsewhere.

One option to consider here is on under 2.5 goals in the game at 13/20, with Bristol City’s poor scoring record on the road suggesting they will not add significantly to the total on the day.

And with Portsmouth scoring just once in their last four home games and six of the last eight games at Fratton Park featuring under 2.5 goals, a low-scoring match looks to be in prospect.

But for more tempting odds, consider a bet on there to be no goals at all in the first half at odds of 33/20.

Five of the last eight Portsmouth home games have been 0-0 at half time, with not more than one goal scored in any of those matches.

And with Bristol City’s lack of goals added into the equation, another 0-0 half time scoreline looks to be on the cards.

As for the final result, with neither teams showing much form going forward the 0-0 final result could be the best action at 25/4.

Recommended bet: 0-0 at half time at 33/20

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Tim worked as a desk head at online press agency Adfero for four years before joining the bwinbetting line-up. A refined character with impressive football knowledge, Tim will often be fouind at Carrow Road watching his first love, Norwich City.

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